Swiss Kriss for President

Swiss Kriss for President
Eisenhower photograph (1956), National Archives and Records Administration, from Wikimedia Commons. Armstrong photograph by William P. Gotlieb (1946), public domain, from Wikimedia Commons. Photo montage by William Shunn.

This is one of a series of poems exploring the life and work of jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong consumed and was fixated by the laxative Swiss Kriss for the last two decades of his life

An unpaid pitchman, I even sent Kriss

to Eisenhower. “Do it the Satchmo

way and you’ll feel 10 years old.”

Eisenhower wrote back: “As President

I’m not supposed to feel like I’m ten

years old.”  

shortlink: dogb.us/ike

          

               

More Remarkable Finds
Swiss Kriss Diet

Swiss Kriss Diet

I’m a high-strutting yo-yo diet, the gut and down every year or so. But people fixate on my weight, like I got cancer. No, I got Swiss Kriss.
Film Studies

Film Studies

I am pushing this bicycle twined with ribbons & flags & enormous bells through the elaborate marble lobby to the bar.
Borrowings of the Shan Van Vocht

from Borrowings of the Shan Van Vocht

I am more than I seem. A jaw that does not fit. The thick femur that rubs this pelvis to an ache. A skull that can’t quit echoing in the chaos.

Recent

Track your submissions at Duotrope